Typical prior art price verifiers include a bar code scanner to which a customer presents a product bearing a bar code. The bar code is scanned and decoded and the bar code information is relayed to an information repository such as a server storing a price lookup database. Information associated with the product bar code is retrieved and relayed to the price verifier for display.
A typical product bar code, such as a product bar code does not itself provide substantive information about a product. Instead, a product bar code serves as an index to a database such as the price lookup database, and the only information that can be provided by a price verifier is information that has been previously stored in the database in association with the bar code. Such information is typically relatively limited in scope. Particularly when used in connection with standardized products for which a universal product code is used, the information associated with the product bar code is information representative of the product category, rather than individual specimens of a product.